Monday, January 11, 2016

I'm
sure that this would have been the best sleep I ever had, if I could
sleep at all. The mattress is thick and cloudlike and I just can't
figure out how they managed that without memory foam. It's the nicest
mattress I've ever lied down upon, with the softest blankets I've
ever snuggled under. But except in pitiful fragments, sleep has not
been happening.

After
several prompts from Apple Blossom, her mother, and her father
several times throughout the day, I still haven't told either one of
them about what Katie did. As much as it makes me a terrible person,
I just couldn't get the words out. They just locked themselves up
inside of me and there was nothing I could do to free them.
Eventually, they all stopped asking, and I was allowed to run home
and get my luggage. I half-expected to find Katie standing on my
front porch with Hannah and Janelle, all three of them giving me
those disgusting looks of faux concern. But thankfully, I was greeted
by an empty house and was able to pick up my things in peace.

I
think Apple Blossom would be a lot more excited about my staying over
if the situation were different. If she had any other opportunity for
me to stay over for any other reason, she'd be bouncing off the walls
about it all day and night. But yesterday, with the thought of this
mysterious problem that's made me cry and that I won't even talk
about, she walked around in a somber state, her natural bounciness
snuffed out like a candle flame. Everytime I met her eyes, they
looked upon me with genuine worry, silently pleading for me to just
open up and tell her so that she could stop making one dreary
speculation after another. It just about killed me to see her so
dejected.

It's
dawn now, and the Jadeites are waking up. Last night, I learned that
Jadeites are like birds; they go to bed as soon as the sky grows
dark, and they rise at the crack of dawn. Like birds, they're
chattering happily as they get ready for the day. Apple Blossom
should be awake soon, if she isn't already, and I think now is the
time to tell her the truth. Then, hopefully, I will be able to get
some real sleep...

10:47
AM

I
found Apple Blossom sitting on her bed, still in her nightgown,
playing with a little wood-carved rabbit toy. When she saw me, she
flew off of the bed and wrapped her arms around me. “Good morning,
Aidyn, good morning!” she chirped like a merry songbird. “I was
just about to go and see if you were awake yet...and look, you are!”

I'm
not supposed to be,” I told her. “Humans aren't exactly early
risers. But I couldn't sleep last night, and...”

“Because
I have something to tell you,” I continued, “something that I
should have told you yesterday.” I sat down beside her on the bed
and I took her hand. “This is very serious, Apple Blossom, and it's
not going to be happy news. But I need you to pass it on to your
parents, all right?”

“All
right,” Apple Blossom said with a nod.

So
I told her everything, from beginning to end. I even showed her the
texts, after explaining a little bit about how text messaging works.
I made it very clear how much of it was my fault, and that if I
hadn't told Katie anything in the first place, none of this would be
happening right now. In the end, I was in tears, and Apple Blossom
had been moved to silence. I couldn't deal with silence at that point
in time, especially not out of her. “Please say something!” I
pleaded. “Say anything!”

“I
don't know what to say yet,” she told me. At least it was
something. I decided maybe it was best for me to go. “I'm going
back to bed,” I said, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand.
“I've...I've told you everything I needed to tell you. Like I said,
humans shouldn't be up this early. And Apple Blossom, I'm...” I
felt more tears coming on, and I choked back a sob. “I'm sorry!”

“Wait,
Aidyn!” she called out as I headed for the door. Of course, I
halted. “What is it, dear?”

“Maybe
you weren't wrong,” she said. “Maybe even Katie wasn't wrong.”

“Say
what?” was my flabbergasted response.

“I
said maybe you weren't wrong, and neither was Katie,” she repeated
herself. “Maybe we're
wrong...about
humans, I mean. Maybe we've been wrong all along. Maybe this is only
a bad thing because we made it a bad thing. Maybe...maybe it's good
that
the humans want to know us so badly, and maybe we ought to just let
them!”

“Oh
no,” I said, shaking my head. “Apple Blossom, you're thinking
dangerously. You weren't wrong about humans, not at all! Don't you
think that what Katie's done is enough proof of that? She's gone and
done what she
wanted,
without any regard at all for your safety and protection, and that's
the kind of thing that humans do all the time! Now those two people
she told could go and tell three other people, and then those three
other people could go and tell some of their
friends,
and then...”

Apple
Blossom stopped me. “Aidyn, I let a human in, and I ended up making
a great friend—no, a best
friend.
I let another one in, and I made another friend.”

“Katie
is not your friend!” I said abruptly.

“I
want her to be!” Apple Blossom said back. “And she wants to be,
too! That's why she told her friends about me! Aidyn, everybody wants
their friends to get to know their new friend! I certainly wanted my
friends to know you. That's why I brought you to my birthday party,
and there was another reason, too.”

“There
was?” I asked. I thought I had the whole birthday party thing all
figured out. “What was the other reason?”

Apple
Blossom took my hand, then, and squeezed it tight. “To form an
alliance,” she told me with queenly solemnity. “Ideal alliances
are formed on special, honored days, when the entire Greenwood has
come together to celebrate. The princess' birthday is one of these
days, and it was just my luck that the human I had been waiting for
came around right then! Aidyn, I've always wanted to meet a human. No
matter how scary they were, no matter how many times I was warned to
keep away from them, no matter how beastly and dangerous others told
me they were, no matter how horrible they looked in books, I have
always wanted to meet one for real. When I was younger, I would wait
out by the gate—I was too scared to actually go outside of the
gate—and watch for them. I told myself that if one of them came
around, I wouldn't run away. I would stay there, and if they didn't
talk to me then I would talk to them.”

“You
are a very, very brave girl,” I said with reverence.

“Well,
nobody came around,” Apple Blossom went on. “Not until my
birthday. The day before, we received news that a human had been
tagged outside of the gates, and I consulted the guardians
immediately. I reminded them that the next day was my birthday, and
in the spirit of the occasion, I wanted the gates lifted just this
once. I told them that for my birthday, I wanted to just see the
human. I didn't tell them that if you were a nice enough human, I
wanted to bring you into the kingdom. If I told them that, they would
never have agreed to lift the gates, and besides, I wasn't ready to
expect a nice human. Actually, I didn't really expect for you to come
back around—most humans don't.

“So
on my birthday, I sneaked away from the party and I waited out by the
gates, just as I had done on so many afternoons when I was very young
and wanted to catch sight of a human. The gates were raised, just as
I had requested. I was glad that the guardians had let me have my
birthday wish. And then I saw you, Aidyn. It was as if a creature out
of a storybook had come to life. Except you weren't like the humans
in the storybooks, not at all!”

“And
you weren't scared of me?” I asked. “Not even a little bit?”

“Well,
yes, I was a little scared,” she admitted. “But it comforted me
that you weren't the ugly, hulking beast I had half-expected. Really,
you weren't so very different from us Jadeites. I was surprised to
see that you were only about as tall as my father, and that you had
such a pretty face.”

“Well,
thanks,” I said, tousling her hair.

Apple
Blossom looked up at me with all of the
solemnity that a little girl could manage—which, in Apple Blossom's
case, was quite a lot. The girl was practically a queen already. “I
knew then,” she told me, “that the stories had been
wrong, that we had been entirely wrong about humans. You weren't a
beast. As I got to know you, that became more and more apparent. You
were simply a creature from another world, not quite so different
from us as I had been told. You could be kind. You could be friends.
You weren't angry, or hateful, or destructive. From that day on, I
thought it was silly that Jadeites hated humans so much. I didn't
want to hate humans, and I didn't want everybody else to be so afraid
of you. I wanted to put an end to it! And now, I don't think it was
an accident, Aidyn; you came in on an honored day, returning even
though no other humans ever had. The guardians even lifted the gates
for you...you know, if it had been any other day, they would never
have done that, no matter how I asked. It all had to be for a reason.
I think it had to be for a reason that you're as kind as you are, and
that you were able to win everybody over in the way that you did. I
feel as though it wouldn't have happened with any other human.”

“It's
only my nature, Apple Blossom,” I told her. “Besides, I don't
believe in fate or in destiny.”

“I
do,” Apple Blossom said, “and now that things have happened the
way they have, I think I was destined to put a stop to this
foolishness about humans after all. I think we're supposed to form an
alliance. I think we were always
supposed to form an alliance. So if we're going to form an alliance,
we might as well start with your three friends. They want to know me,
Aidyn, and I want to know them.”

For
a few moments, both of us were silent. Really, I had run out of
things to say. Apple Blossom's heart was definitely in the right
place, but she was playing with fire. There was a reason for the
Jadeites' (and the tree elves') hatred of humans—I didn't think so
before, but now I knew. Katie had given me that reality check. Humans
were selfish, impulsive, and therefore dangerous. To align with them
would be dangerous. Apple Blossom had a bad idea with good
intentions. But the only thing I could think to say about it was,
“You know your parents would never agree to that.”

She
nodded. “You're right,” she said, “so this is going to take
some time. But I'll start by telling them what you've told me. You
wanted me to tell them, didn't you?”

“Yes,”
I said, “please do.”

“I
will,” said Apple Blossom. Then she chuckled. “You know, you told
me this wasn't happy news, but it turned out to be very happy news after
all! This could be the start of something wonderful, Aidyn, for
Jadeites and for humans!”

“Maybe
it could,” I said, and we left it at that. This could be the start
of something wonderful, or the start of something terrible, and we
had no real way of knowing. What I saw as a horrible mistake, Apple
Blossom saw as the first step to making a dream come true. But even
so, she was playing with fire. I had no way of knowing what Katie and
the others' true intentions were, and even if they were good, they
say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Apple
Blossom may be the poster child for that little aphorism.

Or
else, she may be the one to avert it. I don't think I'm ready to find
out, nor is the Greenwood. I think for now, it's best that I continue
to lay low.

About Me

I'm Star Nova, and I like to tell stories. This blog used to be more topical, but then just became a place where I could easily hold my stories. I have several short stories and two big works in progress, as well as some old crap and some pending revisions OF some old crap.
I write in order to share how I see the world, from my own perspective. If you're here, you're probably here from Tumblr or Twitter. I hope you like my stories. And if you don't, I hope you at least read them before you decide that. (: